“running the numbers”

i love seeing really very interesting artwork. being an art college student, i see a lot of very “conceptual” art, filled with pompous and self-righteousness. the work is often soooooo intelligent that if you don’t get it then you must not be worthy of the gold light that flows out of their elevated rear end.

this is not one of those artists. conceptual, yes but for real, not all bloated and wind-baggy. this guy, chris jordan, makes an in-your-face statement without being over the top and pushy. i would say that it is not grotesque, but that is not true. the reality of our actions are depicted by jordan through means of the end. our waste that we produce on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis is enough to make one rethink our next trip to the garbage can with these images in our heads.

aside from the statement that the art makes, i enjoy the sheer massiveness of the pieces. if you ever wondered what 32,000 barbie dolls would look like all laid out, or how many paper cups (like from your daily dose of gourmet roast) are used every 15 minutes (410,000!!!!!), then this is the guy for you.

it’s not very often that we can see an excess of our lifestyles, isolated from all the others, in it’s incremental entirety. it can really make one think.